System and method for contact information integration with search results

ABSTRACT

A system for providing integrated contact information with search results, comprising a plurality of contact centers, each comprising at least a plurality of contact agents; a callback cloud, comprising at least a plurality of contact agents; a queue manager, comprising at least a software components operating and stored on a computing device; wherein the contact agents receive and respond to customer interactions; further wherein the queue manager monitors contact agent availability; further wherein the queue manager receives interaction requests; and further wherein the queue manager provides queue information to interaction requestors.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Application No. Date Filed Title Current Herewith SYSTEM AND METHOD FORCONTACT application INFORMATION INTEGRATION WITH SEARCH RESULTS Is acontinuation of: 16/038,133 Jul. 17, 2018 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACTINFORMATION INTEGRATION WITH SEARCH RESULTS which is a continuation of:14/810,493 Jul. 28, 2015 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACT Patented PatentDate INFORMATION INTEGRATION WITH 10,027,806 Jul. 17, 2018 SEARCHRESULTS which is a continuation of: 14/178,589 Feb. 12, 2014 SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR CONTACT Patented Patent Date INFORMATION INTEGRATION WITH9,094,516 Jul. 28, 2015 SEARCH RESULTS which is a continuation of:13/951,429 Jul. 25, 2013 System and Method for Contact InformationIntegration with Search Results which is a continuation-in-part of:13/843,688 Mar. 15, 2013 System and Method for Contact InformationIntegration with Search Results which claims priority of, and benefitto: 61/701,451 Sep. 14, 2012 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DIRECT CONNECTIONWITH PROVIDERS VIA INTERNET SEARCH and is also a continuation-in-partof: 13/659,902 Oct. 24, 2012 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING PatentedPatent Date A CALLBACK CLOUD 8,938,221 Jan. 20, 2015 which is acontinuation-in-part of: 13/479,870 May 24, 2012 MANAGING, DIRECTING,AND QUEUING Patented Patent Date COMMUNICATION EXTENTS USING 9,055,149Jun. 9, 2015 IMAGE TECHNOLOGY which is a continuation-in-part of:12/320,517 Jan. 28, 2009 MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE Patented PatentDate FOR ESTABLISHING AUTOMATED CALL 8,213,911 Jul. 3, 2012 BACK CurrentHerewith SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACT application INFORMATIONINTEGRATION WITH SEARCH RESULTS Is a continuation of: 16/038,133 Jul.17, 2018 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACT INFORMATION INTEGRATION WITHSEARCH RESULTS which is a continuation of: 14/810,493 Jul. 28, 2015SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACT Patented Patent Date INFORMATIONINTEGRATION WITH 10,027,806 Jul. 17, 2018 SEARCH RESULTS which is acontinuation of: 14/178,589 Feb. 12, 2014 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACTPatented Patent Date INFORMATION INTEGRATION WITH 9,094,516 Jul. 28,2015 SEARCH RESULTS which is a continuation of: 13/951,429 Jul. 25, 2013System and Method for Contact Information Integration with SearchResults which is a continuation-in-part of: 13/843,688 Mar. 15, 2013System and Method for Contact Information Integration with SearchResults which is a continuation-in-part of: 13/659,902 Oct. 24, 2012SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING Patented Patent Date A CALLBACK CLOUD8,938,221 Jan. 20, 2015 which is a continuation-in-part of: 13/446,758Apr. 13, 2012 COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR Patented Patent Date ESTABLISHINGCALL BACK 8,792,866 Jul. 29, 2014 which is a continuation of: 12/320,517Jan. 28, 2009 MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE Patented Patent Date FORESTABLISHING AUTOMATED CALL 8,213,911 Jul. 3, 2012 BACK the entirespecification of each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The invention relates to the field of software applications, and moreparticularly to the field of integrating human interaction software withcorporate communication systems.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Companies know that consumers (customers and future customers) turn tosearch engines when they are looking for information, so they areheavily investing in website design, search engine optimization, mobile,and online marketing to ensure that they are found during the search . .. and that they are providing a channel of communication that is easy touse and navigate. The easier it is for a consumer to find a company, andnavigate through the information, the more likely they will be to usethe technology and become and/or stay a customer. However, with therapid growth in search engine use it is truly surprising how mostcompanies are still behind in delivering an effective and easy to useonline experience for consumers. According to Econsultancy Multi ChannelCustomer Experience report “Only 26% of companies have a well-developedstrategy in place for improving the search and online customerexperience”. Also, “40% of organizations cite ‘complexity’ as thegreatest barrier to improving multichannel online customer experiences”.This complexity and lack of simple online strategies is leading to poorcustomer experiences and frustration, and costing organizations a lot ofmoney. According to Parature Customer Service Blog, “poor onlinecustomer experiences result in an estimated $83 Billion loss by USenterprises each year because of webpage defections caused by poordesign, lack of contact information or links for assistance, andabandoned purchases from web order pages”.

Search engine and online use by consumers is growing rapidly, andcompanies are trying to keep up to capture this audience. However, whatcompanies seem to forget, or ignore, is the fact that when it comes tocustomer service most consumers actually prefer to speak with someone.According to the American Express 2011 Global Customer Service Barometer“90% of US consumers prefer to resolve their customer service issuesthrough live communication with a customer service representative viathe telephone, rather than through online chat, email, text messaging,or even face to face.” Companies have approached their multichannelstrategies as an extension of their self-service strategy, so they tendto make it difficult for the consumer to actually speak with someone.Typically the phone number is hidden on a page several layers deepwithin the site, in very small font, and it usually does not show up inthe results through a search engine, forcing the consumer to go to thewebsite and search for the number. This “self-service” approach to theirweb strategy may be viewed as a solution in providing information andvalue to the consumer, but when it comes to allowing your customers tocontact you this overall strategy has resulted in complaints,defections, and ultimately lost revenue.

What is needed, is a means to retrieve and integrate a company's contactinformation in search results, facilitating a much more efficient anduser-friendly “one click” means of contacting a business after locatingtheir information in an Internet search.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and method for retrievaland integration of contact information within displayed search results.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system forproviding integrated contact information with search results comprisinga queue manager, that may monitor contact agent activity or availabilitysuch as to maintain queue information for processing of contactrequests, and that may also provide such queue information tointeraction requestors, is disclosed. According to the embodiment, aplurality of contact agents may receive and respond to customerinteractions (such as taking customer service phone calls, or respondingto e-mail or instant message-based communications, as may be appropriateto the nature of a particular interaction), and such agents may bedistributed such as in a plurality of contact centers or in acloud-based or similar distributed or remote organization, such thatcontact agents may interact with customers regardless of physicallocation or logical arrangement. According to the embodiment, a queuemanager may monitor agent statistics such as (for example) scheduling,training or skill sets, or current availability. A queue manager mayalso monitor overall contact center or cloud operations, such as callvolume (number of calls being taken in a given timeframe, or variousderivative statistics such as average call quantity or peak periods ofactivity), such as to maintain a “virtual queue”, not only of individualagent availability but also of overall contact center operations. Inthis manner, a queue manager may maintain a relevant measurement ofcontact center operations with sufficient granularity as to allow fortrend analysis or statistic gathering on specific agents as well.According to the embodiment, a queue manager may provide thisinformation in response to interaction requests, such as to notify arequestor of current availability—such as, for example, providing anestimated wait time for an agent to become available, or providing thenumber of available agents trained to handle a particular interactionrequest. In this manner, a queue manager may receive interactionrequests and provide relevant information to assist the requestor,rather than a simple interaction denial if no agents are available.Furthermore, a queue manager may provide interactive indicia (such asclickable buttons, or other interactive interface elements common in theart) to a requestor, such as to enable them to take action based onqueue information received. For example, if no agents are available, arequestor might be given an interactive option to schedule a futureinteraction request. It should be appreciated that such functionality isdescribed as exemplary, and a variety of indicia and interactivefunctions may be utilized according to the invention. It should befurther appreciated that as described, a queue manager may handle queueinformation and interaction requests for a plurality of contact centersor cloud-based agents. Such an arrangement is exemplary, and additionalor alternate arrangements may be utilized according to the invention(such as contact centers with dedicated queue managers, or queuemanagers that optionally may interact with each other for more efficientinformation availability and presentation).

According to a further embodiment, a requestor may be a search enginesuch as various internet-based search providers common in the art.According to the embodiment, a search engine may request informationform a queue manager as part of a search query, such as when a usersearches for corporate contact information. According to the embodiment,a search engine may submit query information to a queue manager, such ascorporate identification information from a search query, such that aqueue manager may identify relevant contact agents. Queue manager maythen provide any relevant queue information, such as agent availabilityor hours of operation, and may furthermore provide interactive indiciasuch as to allow scheduling of a future interaction (such as when noagents are currently available), or to immediately contact an agent forfurther information or assistance (such as when agents are known to beavailable and ideally able to assist with a particular query). A searchengine may then return any information or indicia received alongsideresults of a search query for presentation to, and optional interactionby, a user.

In another preferred embodiment, a method for providing integratedcontact information with search results is disclosed. According to theembodiment, a user may submit a search query, such as when searching forinformation related to a business or product. A search engine may takethis query information (and optionally any additional known information,such as stored data from previous queries), and submit a request to aqueue manager. Queue manager may then respond with any relevant queueinformation, and optionally with interactive indicia to provideinteraction options to the requesting user (such as clickable “contactus” buttons, or interactive elements for scheduling a future callbackrequest). The search engine may then present this information or indiciato the user, along with the results of the search query.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention according to the embodiments. One skilled inthe art will recognize that the particular embodiments illustrated inthe drawings are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit thescope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecturefor a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangementof clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture accordingto a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary method forembedding contact information within search results, according to apreferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a prior art illustration of an exemplary search results pageas is common in the art.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary search results overview pagewith embedded contact data, according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a detailed search results page showingembedded contact data and live queue data, according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a detailed search results page showingembedded callback interface and callback confirmation, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a search results overview page showingembedded contact data and self-service interface elements, according toan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary flow of messagesignals between exemplary components of a system providing embedded datawithin search results, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a variant architecture, illustrating theuse of distributed resources according to an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 13 is a method diagram illustrating prioritization of searchresults based on resource managers, according to an embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system andmethods for retrieval of contact information for displaying relevantcontact information and embedding live queue functionality into searchresults.

One or more different inventions may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the inventions describedherein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should beunderstood that these are presented for illustrative purposes only. Thedescribed embodiments are not intended to be limiting in any sense. Oneor more of the inventions may be widely applicable to numerousembodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure. In general,embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice one or more of the inventions, and it is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural,logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the particular inventions. Accordingly,those skilled in the art will recognize that one or more of theinventions may be practiced with various modifications and alterations.Particular features of one or more of the inventions may be describedwith reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures thatform a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way ofillustration, specific embodiments of one or more of the inventions. Itshould be understood, however, that such features are not limited tousage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures withreference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neithera literal description of all embodiments of one or more of theinventions nor a listing of features of one or more of the inventionsthat must be present in all embodiments.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Tothe contrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of theinventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects ofthe inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps,algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, suchprocesses, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work inalternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in thispatent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirementthat the steps be performed in that order. The steps of describedprocesses may be performed in any order practical. Further, some stepsmay be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied asoccurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described afterthe other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by itsdepiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process isexclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not implythat the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one ormore of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustratedprocess is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once perembodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that theymay only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carriedout or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or someoccurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a givenembodiment or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described, it will be readily apparent that a single deviceor article may be used in place of the more than one device or article.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of oneor more of the inventions need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be notedthat particular embodiments include multiple iterations of a techniqueor multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise.Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood asrepresenting modules, segments, or portions of code which include one ormore executable instructions for implementing specific logical functionsor steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included withinthe scope of embodiments of the present invention in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

A “resource”, as used herein, may refer to any means of satisfying acustomer need, such as a contact center agent (such as may respond tocustomer queries and needs) or other human resource, or any hardware orsoftware product, system or service such as may be utilized for servingcustomer needs. Such resources may be operated by a corporate entity and(at least in the case of hardware or software resources) may beinteracted with in some capacity by customers for various self-servicepurposes (such as a customer using software to research information orperform operations such as on a customer account). Exemplary resourcesmight include company web servers running web services or a companywebsite, databases or other storage systems, application serversoperating software for client or internal use, routing systems formanaging communications either internally or with customers or otherexternal individuals, a physical device such as a document printer forprinting hard copies of electronic documents, or any other hardware orsoftware system that might be utilized by a business or enterprise.Exemplary human resources might include contact center agents such asfor technical support or customer service, sales or service associatessuch as at a physical storefront, or account management personnel suchas dedicated representatives for large corporate accounts. Suchresources are exemplary and it should be appreciated that anything maypotentially be considered a resource if it is used in such a manner asto serve customers, whether directly or indirectly (such as “behind thescenes” service, as may be the case with technical support personnelthat do not directly interact with customers).

A “resource manager”, as used herein, may refer to any element that maycontrol access or interaction with resources, such as a softwaresecurity gateway that might regulate interaction based on securitycredentials or other criteria.

An “interaction”, as used herein, refers to any attempted or successfulinteraction between an individual consumer and a business contact suchas a contact center agent or other representative. Such interactions mayoccur via any suitable communication means, such as telephone call,voice over internet protocol (VoIP) call, text chat, e-mail, or anyother communication method suitable for facilitating interaction betweena consumer and a company representative.

An “agent”, as used herein, refers to any customer service, sales, orother representative operating or communicating on behalf of a corporateor enterprise entity, such as for receiving and handling interactionswith consumers (current or potential customers) or other businessindividuals.

A “live queue”, as used herein, refers to an actively monitored anddisplayed countdown of an interaction's position in a virtual “queue” orwaiting list before being handled by an agent.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be disclosedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, and the like), aconsumer electronic device, a music player, or any other suitableelectronic device, router, switch, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In at least some embodiments, at least some of the features orfunctionalities of the various embodiments disclosed herein may beimplemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or the like).

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 100 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 100 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 100 may be adaptedto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 100 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 102, one or more interfaces 110, and one or morebusses 106 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 102may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated withthe functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine.For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 100 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 102,local memory 101 and/or remote memory 120, and interface(s) 110. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 102 may be caused to perform one or more ofthe different types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 102 may include one or more processors 103 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 103 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 100. In a specificembodiment, a local memory 101 (such as non-volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one ormore levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU 102. However,there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system100. Memory 101 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, forexample, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and thelike.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 110 are provided as network interfacecards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 110 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 100. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF),BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., using near-fieldmagnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernetinterfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode(ATM) interfaces, high-speed serial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Pointof Sale (POS) interfaces, fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), andthe like. Generally, such interfaces 110 may include ports appropriatefor communication with appropriate media. In some cases, they may alsoinclude an independent processor and, in some in stances, volatileand/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 1 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 100 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 103 may be used, and such processors 103may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 103 handlescommunications as well as routing computations, while in otherembodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may beprovided. In various embodiments, different types of features orfunctionalities may be implemented in a system according to theinvention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device orsmartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a serversystem described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 120 and local memory 101) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 120 or memories101, 120 may also be configured to store data structures, configurationdata, encryption data, historical system operations information, or anyother specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory, solid state drives, memristormemory, random access memory (RAM), and the like. Examples of programinstructions include both object code, such as may be produced by acompiler, machine code, such as may be produced by an assembler or alinker, byte code, such as may be generated by for example a JAVA™compiler and may be executed using a Java™ virtual machine orequivalent, or files containing higher level code that may be executedby the computer using an interpreter (for example, scripts written inPython, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 2,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 200 includes processors210 that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 230. Processors 210 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 220 such as, forexample, a version of Microsoft's WINDOWS™ operating system, Apple's MacOS/X or iOS operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, Google's ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases,one or more shared services 225 may be operable in system 200, and maybe useful for providing common services to client applications 230.Services 225 may for example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space commonservices in a Linux environment, or any other type of common servicearchitecture used with operating system 210. Input devices 270 may be ofany type suitable for receiving user input, including for example akeyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse,touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices 260 maybe of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users,whether remote or local to system 200, and may include for example oneor more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or anycombination thereof. Memory 240 may be random-access memory having anystructure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors 210,for example to run software. Storage devices 250 may be any magnetic,optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storageof data in digital form. Examples of storage devices 250 include flashmemory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary architecture for implementing at least a portion of a systemaccording to an embodiment of the invention on a distributed computingnetwork. According to the embodiment, any number of clients 330 may beprovided. Each client 330 may run software for implementing client-sideportions of the present invention; clients may comprise a system 200such as that illustrated in FIG. 2. In addition, any number of servers320 may be provided for handling requests received from one or moreclients 330. Clients 330 and servers 320 may communicate with oneanother via one or more electronic networks 310, which may be in variousembodiments any of the Internet, a wide area network, a mobile telephonynetwork, a wireless network (such as WiFi, Wimax, and so forth), or alocal area network (or indeed any network topology known in the art; theinvention does not prefer any one network topology over any other).Networks 310 may be implemented using any known network protocols,including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 320 may call external services370 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 370 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 310. In various embodiments, external services 370 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 230 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 230 may obtain information stored in aserver system 320 in the cloud or on an external service 370 deployed onone or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 330 or servers 320 (orboth) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliancesthat may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks310. For example, one or more databases 340 may be used or referred toby one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood byone having ordinary skill in the art that databases 340 may be arrangedin a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of dataaccess and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments oneor more databases 340 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, Hadoop Cassandra, Google BigTable, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 360 and configuration systems 350. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 360 orconfiguration system 350 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an exemplary system architecture 400 forintegration of contact information with existing search engines forembedded display in search results. As illustrated, a plurality ofbusiness contact centers 420 may be connected to and in communicationwith one another and other systems or devices via the Internet 401 oranother communications network. As illustrated, a contact center maycomprise several components for basic performance of contact centerfunction, such as including (but not limited to) resource managers suchas an automated call distributor (ACD) 421 that may handle distributionor routing of incoming interactions (such as telephone calls) toappropriate agents 424 for handling, CTI server 422 that may handleintegration and coordination of computer- or Internet-based interactionswith telephony-based interactions (such as might be appropriate when aconsumer uses a VoIP program such as SKYPE™ to place a call to a contactcenter, where agents may be using traditional telephony hardware), and aplurality of contact center agents 424 that may be responsible forreceiving and handling inbound interactions, as well as placing andhandling outbound interactions. It should be appreciated that thearrangement of contact centers as shown is exemplary, and alternateconfigurations are possible (such as a contact center with remote agentshandled by resource managers, as illustrated below with reference toFIG. 12).

As illustrated, A plurality of search engines 410 such as those operatedby service providers such as GOOGLE™ 411 a, BING™ 411 b, or YAHOO!™ 411c (or any other search engine provider as are common in the art) may beconnected to and in communication with other elements of system 400 viathe Internet 401 or another communications network. Search engines 410may be utilized by consumers for querying available information tolocate products or services such as might be offered by companiesoperating contact centers 420 as illustrated, or for retrieving contactinformation for such companies as might be desirable should a userdesire to contact and interact with an agent 424. As furtherillustrated, system 400 may also comprise a queue manager 402, which maybe utilized to operate a virtual queue service wherein a pendingconsumer interaction may be given a position in a queue (such as basedon the time an interaction was initiated) enabling the consumer topursue other activities while a queue manager 402 may maintain aconsumer's position in the virtual queue relative to other interactions,and a callback cloud 403 that may comprise a distributed or cloud-basedplurality or network of contact resources such as contact center agents,for such purposes as distributed callback handling (as may be utilizedto optimally respond to callbacks without impacting inbound contactcenter operations, or to respond to callbacks that may be scheduledoutside of contact center hours of operation). A more detailedillustration and description of a callback cloud are given below, withreference to FIG. 12. Such a system 400 operates in direct contrast toexisting technologies that may require a user to actively wait “on hold”for a queue to process, occupying their time and preventing them frompursuing other activities, and potentially increasing frustration orlowering overall customer satisfaction out of inconvenience.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 5 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary method 500 foroperation of a system 400 for retrieval of contact information and livevirtual queue data for integration with search results, according to apreferred embodiment of the invention. In an initial step 501, aconsumer submits a query via a search engine. Such a search engine maybe any of a variety common in the art, and query may be any informationquery suitable for submission via a search engine, such as searching forinformation regarding a product or service, looking for information on aknown enterprise, attempting to retrieve information on an unknownenterprise using keywords, or any other similar query. It should beappreciated that the content of a query and nature of a search engineare highly variable, and that all queries or search engines describedare exemplary and many variant or alternate queries and search enginesmay be utilized according to the invention.

In a second step 502, a search engine may process a query and producesearch results via any of a number of search engine operation paradigmscommon in the art. It should be appreciated that search engine operationmay vary according to the invention, and that search engines are arapidly developing and evolving field in the art, and any search enginethat is or may become available may be utilized according to theinvention.

In a next step 503, a search engine may submit identificationinformation for business or establishments found within search results(such as a business name, location, owner information, or any otherinformation that could be used to identify a business) to a queuemanager as part of a search operation (in effect, a queue manager may beconsidered an additional source of information queried during a searchoperation—specifically, contact and queue information regardingbusinesses found in search results). Queue manager may operate remotelyand independently of a search engine, such as a cloud-based serviceprovided by a third-party service provider or vendor, and may provideadditional or alternate functions in addition to operating a virtualqueue and presenting queue and contact information for embedding withresults from a search engine. In this manner it should be appreciatedthat a search engine and queue manager may operate independently of oneanother, or alternately may be operated jointly by a single serviceprovider, and that alternate arrangements may be utilized according tothe invention (such as operation of multiple queue managers withspecialized functions, or operation of multiple search engines withvarying methods of operation or queue manager interaction, or any of avariety of other alternate or additional arrangements that may bepossible). It should be further appreciated that a queue manager may beoperate in a multi-tenant capacity, i.e. a single instance of a queuemanager may be designed and operated such that it may handle a pluralityof enterprise interactions in various arrangements (such as operatingmultiple virtual queues for a single enterprise, or operating queues formultiple enterprises).

In a next step 504, a queue manager may return current virtual queueinformation (that is, information collected as close as is practical tothe moment search results are compiled, thereby presenting a user withthe most recent possible data for increased relevancy) pertaining to abusiness contact center (that may be operated by a business discoveredin search results in a previous step) to a search engine, such ascurrent call volume or wait time, number of available agents, or anyother information that may be relevant to determining overalloperational load of a contact center. It should be appreciated that avariety of information may be collected and sent, and that not allinformation sent in this manner need be utilized by a particular searchengine or query result, and it should be further appreciated that anapparent functional extension of such functionality would be theincorporation of periodic updates from a queue manager, such as frequentupdates (such as a refresh of several updates per second) to queue dataso as to provide realtime information monitoring to a user viewingsearch results. In this manner, a user may examine search results andview queue behavior or perform other activities while leaving searchresults displayed, such that when a user returns to the search resultsdisplay, current and relevant information may still be displayed withoutneeding to refresh a webpage or resubmit a search query. Additionally, avariety of data may be made available, while individual search enginesmay be left to determine what data to store or display, facilitating amore compatible and relevant interaction between a search engine and aqueue manager.

In a next step 505, a search engine may return results to a consumer,optionally with embedded virtual queue data to improve usefulness ofsearch results. Such embedded data might be, for example, a simpledisplay of how many calls are hold with a particular business, or howlong the next customer in a virtual queue (i.e., the next interaction tobe handled) has been waiting, or any of a variety of additional oralternate information that may be relevant to a consumer and that may beobtained from a queue manager in a previous step.

In a final step 506, a user is presented with a search results page withvirtual queue information displayed, optionally with an additionalinteractive element (such as a clickable button or other interactiveinterface element) for initiating a connection with a contact center.Such results may be of varied arrangement and content, as describedbelow (referring to FIGS. 7-9), and a variety of arrangements ofinformation may be presented according to the invention.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of prior art, displaying an exemplary searchresults display 600 as is currently common in the art. Text shown in theillustration is intended as a placeholder, actual text content may varyhowever the overall display interface and general content is asillustrated. As shown, a search results display 600 may comprise a textbox or similar text input and display interface element 601 such asmight display a search query that generated displayed results, aplurality of results of processing a search query 602 that may containbasic information or an overview of a full webpage or locationinformation that returned a result, such as a name or other identifyinginformation, a clickable or selectable link to a webpage URL, or a briefsummary of the content of a webpage. The specific content of results mayvary, but it should be appreciated that the general content and intentof a results entry remains similar, i.e. a concise summary of a webpagethat returned a result to a search query. Display 600 may furthercomprise a plurality of clickable, selectable, or otherwise interactiveinterface elements 603 for manipulating a search query, such assearching for particular types of web content (such as news articles orimages), or configuring search preferences (such as how to filter orsort results prior to display), a static or interactive interface region604 that may display a map such as might display locations of localsearch results, and a static or interactive interface region 605 thatmay display general or targeted advertisements such as might be based onsearch history or browser history. It will be appreciated that display600 as illustrated is representative of standard features common to manysearch engines commonly used in the art, and that such displays maycomprise additional or alternate elements while retaining the basicutility and standard features illustrated.

FIG. 7 is an interface diagram illustrating an exemplary search resultsdisplay 700 incorporating virtual queue information 710 embedded withinsearch results 602, according to an embodiment of the invention. Asillustrated, a search results display 700 may be similar to thosecurrently found in the art (such as exemplary display 600 describedpreviously), but with the addition of virtual queue information 701 suchas may be reported by a queue manager (as described previously,referring to FIG. 5). directly embedded or otherwise incorporated withinsearch results 602 prior to display, to present a user with a unifiedand cohesive, meaningful display that provides new information (currentcall volume or wait time information) not possible with currentsolutions.

As illustrated, virtual queue data 701 may be displayed within oralongside search results, and may comprise any potentially-relevantinformation regarding contact center traffic that may be useful to aconsumer (who might be considering contacting a center), such as (asillustrated) notifying a user that an agent is currently available (andthus signifying immediate service), or displaying a currently-expectedwait time before an interaction will be handled (so as to give a userthe opportunity to make a more informed decision regarding whether tocontact a company or which contact center to contact). It should beappreciated that additional or alternate queue information may becollected and displayed according to the invention, and such informationmight be configurable by a user such as via a search engine settingsmenu 702, which could (for example) give a user configuration optionsfor selecting what types of information should be displayed, controllingthe nature of displayed information such as shape, style, or positioningof display elements, or setting different display options for differenttypes of information or configurable thresholds (such as configuringhold time measurement to be displayed within a square button-styleelement and current call volume to display to the right of searchresults, or to display wait times longer than a selected time intervalto be displayed in red text while those shorter may be displayed ingreen text). It should be appreciated that the nature and display ofsuch information may be highly configurable according to the invention,and furthermore that such configuration may be stored such as viaexisting user account profiles associated with search engines (such as aGOOGLE™ account that may store personal search preferences for theGoogle search engine).

FIG. 8 is an interface illustration showing two exemplary detailedsearch results 800 comprising a search result 801, virtual queueinformation such as what agent skills or departments are available 802,current call wait time 803, and connection interaction elements such asa text input field such as to accept a user's contact number 804, aclickable or otherwise interactive element such as a button 805 such asto submit a user's input contact number for requesting a callbackinteraction, and a resulting confirmation message 806 that mayincorporate virtual queue data to present a user with an expected timeto fulfillment.

As illustrated, a particular search result 801 may be displayed in a“zoomed in” or more detailed manner, with additional informationembedded in a results display 800. Exemplary information as illustratedmay comprise any of a variety of potentially relevant virtual queueinformation, such as to provide a user with information with which tomake an informed decision regarding contacting a business or requestingan agent.

As illustrated, if an agent is unavailable (as illustrated by a callwait time 803 indicating all agents are currently occupied), a user maybe given the option to request an outbound interaction from an agentwhen one becomes available (allowing a user to pursue other activitieswhile maintaining their position in a virtual queue, rather than wait onhold for an extended period). As illustrated, a user may be prompted toenter their own contact information such as (as illustrated) a telephonenumber where they may be reached, or any other personal contactinformation that may be available such as an e-mail address, chat clientinformation, or other contact information. A user may be given theability to submit their information to a callback cloud for outboundcontact such as via a clickable button 605 or other interactiveinterface element, which may be treated as an inbound interaction forsuch purposes as positioning within a virtual queue. When a user submitscontact information and requests contact from an agent, a confirmationmessage may be displayed to alert a user that their request wassuccessfully received and placed in a virtual queue for handling. Such aconfirmation might comprise virtual queue information such as anapproximate time to expect contact from an agent, such as to setreasonable expectations with a user to improve perception of customerservice. A contact request may be sent to a callback cloud (as describedpreviously, referring to FIG. 4) where it may be routed to an agent withappropriate skills, tools, or schedule availability to optimally handlea user's contact request. When a contact request is handled, an agentoperating within a callback cloud may place an outbound interaction toattempt to contact a user using contact information previously enteredby a user (as described above when initially requesting a callback),completing an interaction with a user without having required the userto waste any time waiting on hold or navigating multiple web pagessearching for relevant information, thereby improving customerexperience and business efficiency.

FIG. 9 is an interface illustration showing two exemplary detailedsearch results 800 comprising input elements such as a text input field901 such as for a user to input a contact number where they may bereached, interactive clock 902 or calendar 903 elements for selecting atime and date for scheduling a contact request, and a confirmationmessage 904 such as to notify a user that a contact request wassuccessfully submitted and scheduled. In this manner, a user may chooseto schedule an outbound callback with a contact center, such as if await time is high (as illustrated) or if a user simply desires toschedule a callback for a future time interval (such as, for example, ifa user is out of town but anticipates needing contact upon return), suchthat a user may request contact from a callback cloud agent at a timethat is convenient. Such elements as illustrated are exemplary and mayvary in form or position, and alternate or additional elements may beutilized according to the invention. A further functionality that mightbe implemented could be a scheduling engine that may utilize virtualqueue information such as historical patterns or predicted contactcenter load, such as to provide a calendar functionality wherein a usermay be shown predicted agent availability when deciding how to schedulea callback, so as to make a more informed decision—for example, a usermight desire to avoid a busy day if they have a complicated issue andexpect to be on the phone for an extended period with an agent. Itshould be appreciated that all elements and arrangements illustrated andfunctions described are exemplary in nature and additional or alternatefunctions or elements may be utilized according to the invention.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an exemplary search results display 1000comprising embedded virtual queue data such as agent availabilitystatistics 1001, current call wait times 1002, and an interactiveself-service element 1003, which may allow a user to choose to pursueavailable self-service options according to a particular business orcontact, such as (for example) a skilled user opting to use onlinesoftware configuration tools to configure a new cable or digitalsubscriber line (DSL) internet service connection, rather than contactan agent for assistance with installation. It should be appreciated thatsuch elements may vary in arrangement or design, and that additional oralternate elements may be utilized according to the invention, and itshould be further appreciated that the described use case is exemplaryand a wide variety of self-service solutions and techniques may be madeavailable to users via an interactive interface element 1003, and thatadditional features or implementations may become available and beutilized according to the invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary flow of messagingsignals between various interconnected components of a system forembedded search result information. As shown by signal 1100, a pluralityof provider contact centers 420 a, 420 b (referring to FIG. 4) mayprovide a queue manager 402 with updates of available queues andcorresponding expected wait time (EWT) information. This may be donecontinuously at any periodic interval, e.g., every second. At a certainpoint, a user's communication device 1101 may send a search request 1110to a plurality of search engines 410, which may comprise one or moresearch terms input by device 1101.

In some embodiments, a search engine may calculate search results for auser's search term in block 1120, then send a list of providerscomprising the search results to queue manager 402 via message 1130. Inblock 1135, queue manager 402 may determine which of the list ofproviders received in message 1130 offer direct connection services tousers via queue manager 1135. For example, the received list maycomprise other providers who do not offer such services in addition toone or more of the providers who offer such services such as contactscenters 420 a and 420 b. In such case, the queue manager would onlyselect from the list the one or more providers corresponding to centers420 a or 420 b. For the selected providers, the queue manager alsodetermines in block 1135 the types of services offered (e.g., sales,customer service, general inquiry, etc.), the types of directconnections available for each service (e.g., immediate connection,scheduled call-back connection, queued call-back connection), and, whereapplicable, the expected wait time (MT) for each service queue. Queuemanager 402 may then send this information to the requesting searchengine data center via message 1140, which also may comprise contactinformation (e.g., telephone numbers) for the respective providersand/or services, and self-service information for the provider (e.g.,URL of the provider's customer service web page).

In other embodiments, search engines 410 may store a list of providersassociated with queue manager 402 that offer direct connection services.This list may be updated periodically or occasionally based oninformation received by search engines 410 from queue manager 402. Inthese embodiments, a search engine may determine which of the providerscomprising the search results determined in block 1120 offer directconnection service based on the stored list. Accordingly, message 1130may comprise only the providers determined to offer direct connectionservices, and the operation in block 1135 may comprise the queue managerdetermining, for each provider in the list, the types of servicesoffered (e.g., sales, customer service, general inquiry, etc.), thetypes of direct connections available for each service, and, whereapplicable, the expected wait time for each service queue.

The expected wait time value may represent an estimated wait timecalculated using primary estimated wait time techniques such asprojecting a wait time based on the quantity of clients in the queue andany of a historical, present, or projected time allotment for handlingeach such queued client. Alternatively, the expected wait time value maybe a function of both a primary estimated wait time calculation and await time augmentation calculation made based on service agentavailability and/or scheduled change in service agent availability.

In block 1145, search engines 410 may combine the queue and EWT inforeceived in message 1140 with the search results generated in block 1120and sends the augmented search results to the communication device viamessage 1150. The communication device receives and parses this message,then displays the augmented search results to the user on a screendisplay, such as the screen display embodiments shown in and describedabove with reference to FIGS. 7, 8, 9, and 10. A screen display maycomprise one or more display elements, (e.g., icons), for the user toselect a particular provider and queue and, in some embodiments, toenter call-back information such as the user's phone number. A screendisplay also may comprise display elements (e.g., icons) that, whenselected by the user, cause the device to initiate a telephone call tothe provider or to initiate self-service via the provider's web site. Inblock 1155, a device may receive a user's selection of a particularprovider and service, which subsequently is sent to the search enginedata center in connection request message 1160.

After receiving message 1160, a search engine may reply to a device withdirect connection information message 1165, which may compriseinformation that can be used by the device to render a screen displaysuch as those shown in and described above with reference to FIGS. 8 and9. The display screen may comprise a user input portion by which theuser can enter call-back information such as phone number, time, anddate. After rendering the screen display and capturing the necessaryinput from the user in block 1170, the device sends a connection requestmessage 1174 to the search engine data center. Message 1174 comprisesthe selected provider and service, type of requested direct connection,and any call-back information received from the user in block 1170. Thedata center then sends to the queue manager connection request message1177, which may comprise substantially the same fields as message 1174.Although not shown on the figure, the search engine data center may alsocollect, store, aggregate, and/or process the information from message1174 pertaining to the selection of the particular provider and directconnection service by the user. The search engine provider may later usethis information for billing the contact center providers based on useraccess to direct connection services via the provided search results.Depending on the embodiment, contact center providers or others may becharged each time a consumer selects a provider and direction connectionfrom search results; each time a user requests a connection, e.g., to beadded to a queue; or each time a connection originating from the searchresults is actually completed. Other embodiments may include charges formore than one of these events, with different rates applying to eachcharge.

After receiving the connection request message 1177, the queue managersends an connection request message 1180 to the provider contact centeridentified in message 1177. Message 1180 comprises the particularservice, type of direct connection, and any call back informationincluded in message 1177. In block 1182, the provider contact centerattempts to according to the parameters contained in message 1180. Forexample, if the user requested a queued call-back type of directconnection, in block 1182 the provider contact center attempts to addthe user to the queue corresponding to the requested type of service(e.g., sales, customer service, warranty claim, repair, etc.). Ifsuccessful, the provider contact center responds to the queue managerwith message 1184, indicating that the user's connection request hasbeen added to the queue selected in block 1155. Message 1184 may furthercomprise the latest available EWT for the queue to which the user'sconnection request was added. Alternately, if the queue manager isunable to add the user's connection request to the selected queue, thiswill be indicated in a confirmation message 1184. In the case where theuser has requested a scheduled call-back connection, confirmationmessage 1184 may comprise other available call-back times if thecall-back time requested by the user is not available, which may causethe user's communication device to prompt the user to select from amongthese.

After receiving a confirmation message 1184 from the provider contactcenter, the queue manager sends confirmation message 1185 to the searchengine data center; this message may comprise substantially the samefields as confirmation message 1184. The data center may also collect,store, aggregate, and/or process the information from message 1185 foruse in billing the contact center providers or other entities forfacilitating direct connection services via search results. The datacenter subsequently combines at least a portion of the information inconfirmation message 1185 with at least a portion of the search resultsdetermined in block 1120 (e.g., the information pertaining to theselected provider) in block 1186, then sends the combined information tothe device in message 1187. The message 1187 may comprise, for example,a confirmation web page such as the exemplary ones shown in FIGS. 8B and9B.

Meanwhile, in block 1190, the selected provider contact center (e.g.,contact center 420 b in FIG. 4) determines that it is time to call backthe user who was added to the call back queue in block 1182. If the userhas not scheduled a particular call-back time, this time may occur whenthe user's call-back request reaches a particular point in the selectedqueue, e.g., next in line for a service or sales agent. If the user hasscheduled a particular call-back time, then the provider contact centerwaits until that scheduled time in block 1190. In either case, at thegiven time, the provider contact center establishes a call-backtelephone connection 1195. This telephone connection may be via acircuit-switched telephony network, such as the public switchedtelephone network (PSTN) or public land mobile network (PLMN), or via apacket-switched network, such as the Internet, using an alternativetechnology such as voice-over-IP (VoIP). In some embodiments, thetelephone connection 1195 may be a video telephony connection. In thismanner, the user is able to engage in a conversation with arepresentative of a selected provider without the frustrations of longwaits in a queue. In some embodiments, the user may specify a call backtelephone number such that the user may receive a call-back connection(scheduled or queue) on any device that can accept telephone calls tothe call-back number, not merely on the same device used to initiate theInternet search. Depending on the particular device's capabilities, theuser may be able to use various types of telecommunication applicationsto connect with a provider, including various applications such as Skypethat transmit and receive voice and/or video information using standardand/or proprietary Internet communication protocols.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplary callback cloud 403 utilizingremote resources 1210 and resource managers such as to provideadditional functionality. As illustrated, a requestor 1201 such as asearch engine may interact with a callback cloud via the Internet 1202or similar communications network. Callback cloud 403 may comprise aplurality of remote or distributed resources 1210 such as (for example)remote contact center agents 1211, remote community members 1212, orcloud-based storage 1213. Remote contact agents 1211 may operateindependently or jointly as in a traditional contact centerinterchangeably according to the invention, being unified by a resourcemanager such as (for example) a CTI server 1221. In this manner, avariety of arrangement of contact agents 1211 may be possible whilemaintaining a consistent customer experience by controlling interactionwith those agents via a resource manager. For example, agents mayoperate at different time intervals and a resource manager may tracktheir availability such as to allow interactions at any time of day byrouting to agents that are available at that particular time.

Remote community members 1212 may comprise any individuals connected toa resource manager that may interact with a user such as via a chatdialogue, or that may provide information in response to a search query.These may not necessarily be contact center agents or technicalpersonnel, but may simply be other users who choose to be available toassist when needed based on their own knowledge or skills. A resourcemanager such as a chat server 1222 may manage interactions with suchmembers, such as (for example) when a user searches for informationregarding a product or service, they might be presented with an optionto chat with another user of that product or service (such as viaembedded elements as described above).

Cloud-based storage 1213 may be any of a number of distributedinformation storage solutions as are common in the art, and may furthercomprise user-generated storage such as shared files on a user'spersonal computer (for example). In this manner, search queries mayindex and utilize information not normally available, by utilizing datamade accessible by other community members (such as those describedabove as remote community members 1212) to further refine searchresults.

A further function of utilizing such distributed resources asillustrated in conjunction with resource managers to unify them, is thata resource manager such as a prioritization engine 1223 may receivesearch result information from other resources and resource managers,then perform analysis of results to determine such data as relevancy oravailability of resources in order to “rank” or prioritize results priorto presenting them to a user. Such function is described in greaterdetail below, with reference to FIG. 13.

FIG. 13 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary method forprioritization of search results utilizing remote resources and resourcemanagers as described above in FIG. 12. As illustrated, in an initialstep 1301 a user may submit a search query such as via a traditionalsearch engine as are common in the art. It should be appreciated thatdue to the nature of remote resources and the use of resource managersto control and unify access or interaction with such resources,integration with existing search services and technologies is possibleand the systems of the invention may be readily adapted to new oralternate search technologies as needed.

In a next step 1302, a search engine may query or poll resource managersto incorporate their respective resources in search results. This mayincorporate the presence or availability of resources (such as whether acontact center agent is available), or more detailed information such aswhether a particular agent is available, or how many agents are onlinein a particular area. It should be appreciated that due to the use ofresource managers, a variety of functionalities may be possibleaccording to the invention and additional functionality may be easilyincorporated by modifying resource manager behavior without necessarilyneeding to make changes to resources themselves (further promotingflexibility and adaptability).

In a next step 1303, a resource manager may interact with other resourcemanagers that may or may not themselves be directly accessible to asearch engine for querying. Such an arrangement might be, for example, apublically-accessible resource manager that then interacts with acompany's internal manager (such as a call status server) for suchpurposes as to gain more detailed information regarding availableresources.

In a next step 1304, resource information may then be passed to aprioritization engine or similar resource manager. It should beappreciated that the use of such a manager may provide a “tiered” effectwith regards to resources and manager, i.e. resources may be managed bytheir respective resource managers and those managers may then bemanaged by higher-level resource managers. In this manner, a nestedapproach may be utilized when appropriate according to the invention,offering new or alternate functionality to a callback cloud.

In a next step 1305, a prioritization engine may process results ofresource querying and based on the initial query performed, rank ororder such results for presentation to a user (such as via a searchresults webpage display). In a final step 1306, these ordered resultsmay then be returned to the initial requestor (such as a search engine),for presentation to a user.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for contact information integration witha third party Internet search engine search results, comprising: a queuemanager, comprising a plurality of software programming instructionsstored in a memory of, and operating on a processor of, anetwork-connected computing device configured to connect to andcommunicate with a plurality of contact centers; wherein the queuemanager monitors agent availability across the plurality of contactcenters based at least in part on observed agent activity; wherein thequeue manager receives a request for agent availability information forone or more of the plurality of contact centers from a third partyInternet search engine related to a user's search; wherein the queuemanager determines an estimated wait time for the one or more of theplurality of contact centers based at least in part on the monitoredagent availability, and provides the estimated wait time to the thirdparty Internet search engine for display to the user with an option toinitiate a callback request; and wherein, when the user of the thirdparty Internet search engine initiates the callback request, the thirdparty Internet search engine sends a request to the queue manager, andthe queue manager adds the callback request for the user to the callbackqueue of the one or more of the plurality of contact centers.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the queue manager responds to a request withinteractive indicia; wherein the indicia provide availabilityinformation, based at least in part on information collected by thequeue manager, to the requester; and further wherein the indicia enablescheduling of an interaction with a contact agent based at least in parton agent availability information.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thethird party Internet search engine submits query information to thequeue manager, based at least in part on a first third party Internetsearch query; wherein the query information comprises at least businessinformation to identify a business relevant to a first third partyInternet search query; wherein the queue manager returns relevantcontact information based at least in part on information received fromthe third party Internet search engine; and further wherein the thirdparty Internet search engine includes contact information whenpresenting the results of a query.
 4. The system of claim 3, furtherwherein the queue manager provides interactive indicia with contactinformation based at least in part on agent availability information;wherein the third party Internet search engine presents the indicia withcontact information and query results.
 5. A method for contactinformation integration with a third party Internet search engine searchresults, comprising the steps of: establishing communication between aplurality of contact centers and a queue manager, the queue managercomprising a plurality of software programming instructions stored in amemory of, and operating on a processor of, a network-connectedcomputing device; monitoring, using the queue manager, agentavailability across the plurality of contact centers based at least inpart on observed agent activity; receiving at the queue manager arequest for agent availability information for one or more of theplurality of contact centers from a third party Internet search enginerelated to a user's search; determining, using the queue manager, anestimated wait time for the one or more of the plurality of contactcenters based at least in part on the monitored agent availability, andproviding the estimated wait time to the third party Internet searchengine for display to the user with an option to initiate a callbackrequest; and receiving, when the user of the third party Internet searchengine initiates the callback request, a request from the third partyInternet search engine to the queue manager, and using the queue managerto add the callback request for the user to the callback queue of theone or more of the plurality of contact centers.
 6. The method of claim5, further comprising the steps of: providing an indicia of estimatedwait time, based at least in part on the agent availability informationobtained by the queue manager from the plurality of contact centers, tothe third party Internet search engine.
 7. The method of claim 6,further comprising the steps of: using the indicia of estimated waittime to schedule an interaction request with a callback cloud; sending afirst scheduled interaction request to the queue manager; routing, bythe queue manager, the first scheduled interaction request to a contactcenter according to availability information based at least in part onobserved agent availability; receiving the scheduled interaction requestat a device associated with a first contact center agent; and initiatinga callback from the callback cloud at the scheduled time and bridgingthe callback to the first contact center agent.